The introduction (to labor)

As I mentioned in a previous post, a couple Thursdays ago (Thursday, February 26th) I started to feel like going into labor sooner rather than later was a real possibility. That night, when I went to the bathroom, I saw what appeared to be the start of me losing my mucous plug, also known as the bloody show (sorry about the yucky pictures those words paint, but I didn't term them!). (Leading up to this point, I had already felt like my baby was dropping and had more Braxton Hicks contractions.) It was slight, but enough to make me wonder and I immediately called my mom and got online to do a little research. I was prepared for this to happen, but I still didn't know exactly what it all meant regarding when to expect the baby. Some sites said labor could come within hours of losing it, some said it could be within days. Either way, it seemed to me that our baby wasn't going to wait until March 5th, my due date. I didn't want to alarm Jeff, who was out with some guys that night, but I did end up calling just to make sure he didn't have that extra beer...just in case. He answered the phone excitedly with, "Are we ready to have our baby?" So much for not wanting to get him fired up with a false alarm. I let him know not to worry and he would end up returning home a pretty short time later.

I had some sporadic contractions throughout the night and when it came time to get ready for work the next morning (Friday, February 27th), the thought crossed my mind that I may not be working the full day and end up in the hospital. We thought it was best for Jeff to drive me that day. We were looking forward to a dinner and movie date night that night, but at the end of the work day, still having sporadic contractions throughout the day and feeling more and more uncomfortable, decided that maybe dinner would be all I could handle. Before he picked me up, thinking a baby may make an appearance before Monday morning came along, I made sure to have all my ducks in a row at work, including turning on my out of office reply that I would be on maternity leave and changing my voicemail to reflect a similar message. I said goodbye to my co-workers feeling like it was going to be a longer goodbye than usual on a Friday.

Jeff and I made it to dinner close to our house just fine and settled in at home after to watch a movie. The movie concluded and the contractions really began and became more intense and regular around 8:00pm. I figured this had to be it, but when your water doesn't break, it's just so tough to know what is really what with the contractions being a first-timer. So we got through them as we best knew how and finally ended up calling the clinic a short time later, at 10:04 pm, when they were approaching five minutes between. Our doctor, who was thankfully on call that weekend, called us back a few minutes later at 10:08 pm. I explained that I was OK at home, but since we were instructed to call when the contractions were five minutes apart, we wanted to make sure we didn't have to come to the hospital at that time. After a set of questions, we determined I would stay home until the contractions became more intense and remained five minutes apart or less consistently.

So, the long night began. Jeff got out the stopwatch and we got through the contractions together. The breathing came fairly naturally (luckily, because we only spent about ten minutes on breathing techniques during one of our classes) since it was all I could do to try and relieve some of the discomfort. We headed to bed and discomfort turned to pain later that night, or very early the next morning (Saturday, February 28th), I should say. Jeff was great with the stopwatch at first, starting the timer when a contraction began, stopping it when it ended and giving me the report when the cycle was done. But after a while when I'd wait for the beep, the beep didn't come and I heard a soft snore. I knew it was going to be a long night and that he would need his energy, so I let him sleep. I was jealous, but I knew it would benefit us both. Still, he hardly had much sleep to speak of, but every little bit counted. It was funny because he'd randomly wake up as I was having another contraction (while I was chanting ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow continuously) and I'd hear his watch beep as if he hadn't missed the six contractions prior!

A couple times throughout the night, Jeff would say we needed to go to the hospital, no more phone calls to my clinic, we just needed to go. I almost agreed with him, but somehow we always ended up staying. I figured it was better to go through all of this at home than to wait it out at the hospital. I was glad we did, although a home epidural kit would have been real nice. I took two hot baths which helped in the night, but this madness wasn't going to stop. I think the longest time in between my contractions the entire night was nine minutes, once, but the average was between four and a half minutes and six minutes or so. I didn't sleep. I couldn't sleep. I would never sleep through the night again...or at least for some time! What a harsh realization, but there was no escaping it.

We called the clinic again at 4:38 am and expected another swift phone call from Dr. Chow. We waited. Figuring he was in surgery, we contemplated just heading to the hospital, but we stayed. Jeff got in a tiny bit more sleep and finally the doctor called at 7:21 am. By this time, I was having more bleeding (more like discharge mixed with blood, but heavier and it was a regular occurrence when I would go to the bathroom, which was almost after every contraction...sorry guys) and it concerned me some. I was happy he wasn't as concerned about that, but he wanted to make sure my water bag hadn't ruptured (as I had told him the bloody-tinged liquid was running down both legs at one point when I went to the bathroom...sorry again guys). He would inform the hospital I would be coming within two hours for an evaluation. We figured that even if they didn't admit me, which could easily be the case, we would at least have the peace of mind that everything checked out, even if we were sent home. I wondered how the pain I was experiencing couldn't be worthy of admitting me, but I really just wanted to make sure everything was without complication. Jeff and I got everything ready and set out for our 35 minute car ride. It wasn't as bad, nor as long as I thought it was going to be, seeing as how I was contracting the whole way, but I was so glad to be there when we arrived. It was about 8:30 am on Saturday morning...